The Statue of Liberty is perhaps the most famous American symbol of hope and freedom - a tall proud woman with a torch lighting the way and greeting immigrants arriving in the United States.
The statue faces the southeast, which was to serve as a welcome message to immigrants entering the harbor. And thanks to its huge size, the statue can be seen from afar.
Although millions have seen the statue or put its figure on their table, few people know its true origin and history. We decided to fix it a bit. We present you 10 interesting facts about the Statue of Liberty.
10. Statue of Liberty - a gift from France to the American people
In France in 1875, the sculptors Frederick-Auguste Bartholdy and Gustave Eiffel came together to design a statue and an iron frame that would support it - and then they worked on it for nine years before sending it to New York as a gift in honor of the union of France and the USA.
Lady Liberty is said to be modeled on the Roman goddess Libertas (but this is not entirely true), which is a symbol of freedom gained during the Revolutionary War, as well as former American slaves who were released only a couple of decades ago - in 1863. A thin chain lies at her feet, like a reference to slavery.
9. Bears the official name “Freedom that illuminates the world.”
“Freedom that illuminates the world” - this name was given to the statue by the committee for its creation, formed in 1875. It was decided to raise funds for its construction on both sides of the Atlantic: charity concerts and exhibitions were organized, private investors contributed, etc. In the end, by 1882, it was leisurely able to collect the required 2.2 million francs.
8. The statue was originally made for the Egyptians
Few people know but The Statue of Liberty was not originally intended for the United States, nor was it modeled after Libertas. Bartholdy and others in his circle wanted to present the United States with a gift to celebrate the anniversary of the American Revolution, but they could not decide what it would be and when they would start working on it.
Meanwhile, Bartholdi was delighted with the great pyramids of Egypt, and he was inspired by the huge monuments of the region, having conceived a sculpture on a large scale. Therefore, he went to work on the monument, which will celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal of Egypt. The statue would be dressed like an Arab peasant woman and placed at the southern opening of the canal, holding a lamp to illuminate the path.
But when the Egyptian ruler went bankrupt and could not afford a monument for $ 600,000, Bartoldi quickly orientated himself and redid his statue to become the New Colossus, which we now know as Lady Liberty. He changed the dress a little and turned the lamp into a torch, and her message of friendship and free swimming became a message of freedom.
7. The Statue of Liberty is immortalized on 4.07.1776
The date of July 4, 1776 for the United States of America is of great importance, so this is the birthday of the state. It was July 4 in Philadelphia that the Declaration of Independence was approved, according to which a new country emerged on the territory of the former British colonies.
6. Without Joseph Pulitzer there could be no Statue of Liberty
Another little-known fact is that the statue came not quite ready and required assembly. She was lying in wooden shipping crates in a warehouse in New York when plans were drawn up, and construction began on a huge pedestal on Liberty Island, on which she was supposed to stand.
By 1884, the money for the construction of the pedestal for $ 250,000 was over, and work was stopped. The city hoped that a wealthy businessman would come and pay for the rest of the construction, but this hope weakened after several years of waiting.
When it became clear that New York could not afford to build a pedestal, other cities, including Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco and Boston, offered to take the Statue of Liberty from New York. They could easily pay for the construction of the pedestal in their cities and claimed that it would be rude to leave a gift to France in a box. Many believed that the best step would be to transfer the Statue of Liberty to another city.
As an immigrant who drove through Ellis Island in New York, Joseph Pulitzer built a newspaper empire in the United States. As the publisher of New York World, he was probably able to make a big financial contribution, but he had a different perspective on the situation. He explained this in an open letter to the people of New York, which he published in New York World on March 16, 1885. Although the term “crowdsourcing” has not yet been coined, Pulitzer proposed it.
In his open letter, he said that every citizen of the city must do everything possible to complete the project, noting: “Let's not wait until millionaires give us this money. This is not a gift from France’s millionaires to America’s millionaires, but a gift from the entire French people to the entire American people. ”
Pulitzer raised more than enough money in just five months, and the contributions were mostly small - less than $ 1, but there were a lot of them (over 160,000 citizens made a contribution).
5. The Statue of Liberty wears size 879 shoes
No ordinary shoe store can offer suitable shoes for Lady Liberty if she suddenly needs it. Moreover, not every shoe company can sew a pair of shoes or sandals 879 size.
4. Initially, the statue did not have the usual green color.
If you ever wondered why the Statue of Liberty is green, the answer is oxidized copper.. The outer coating is known as patina and protects it from further destruction. This is the same as you could see in old European cities, where some roofs were made of copper. Of course, at the time of opening and the first years, it was not like that.
4. The statue is under the protection of UNESCO
In 1984, the Statue of Liberty received UNESCO World Heritage status.. Since 1924, it is also included in the list of US national monuments. More than 4.5 million people visit Liberty Island every year and even more people see the Statue of Liberty every day from Staten Island Ferry.
2. Windows in the crown of the Statue symbolize gems
The crown also has seven spikes that represent the seven continents of the world.. Another fact about the Statue of Liberty and the crown dates back to 1944, when a dot-to-dot-dash flashed on the lights, which is the Morse code for V, which was a message informing about the victory in Europe during World War II .
1. Copies of the Statue of Liberty can be found in many cities around the world.
In the USA, of course, the most copies. Back in 1950, one businessman, a certain Whitaker, a native of Kansas City, smelted 200 copies, which he distributed throughout the American territories.
These days it’s called Operation “Strengthening the hands of freedom. " There are about 180 in the United States and fewer in other countries: 41 in France (especially in Paris), 10 in Canada, there is even one in Belarus and a couple in Russia.